Bonus chapter for KeKe for the CG 10k Discord member event.
translator: daisy
proofreader: jay
After this, Sheng Renxing became even busier, and barely met up with Xing Ye.
Or it could be that Xing Ye often skipped classes.
During this period, the director also introduced him to another boy who was also going to participate in the competition, called Wuren.
Sheng Renxing stared at him after hearing the name.
The student tapped his glasses, “My dad is a Confucian scholar, it has nothing to do with mooncakes.”
Sheng Renxing nodded but internally noted how delicious those desserts were.
The director allowed them to set up a “reading club” so that they could communicate with each other what they knew. The math teachers at the school could also participate as well.
As a result, the two of them ended up with more than enough “self-study time” during the evening. Mooncakes was admitted to the school in September. He was the only seedling that the teachers adored until Sheng Renxing sprouted up halfway through.
During their first “reading club”, the mooncake said that for any questions he wasn’t sure of, he would first go to the teacher, and if they didn’t know, he’d consult Sheng Renxing.
The person in question burst out laughing.
The book club aspect was just a title as well—it was actually just an evening study session. They would head to the library to complete math problems, and any teachers that were free would come to visit them.
It can be concluded that the school attaches great importance to this competition.
The two sat opposite each other, and the mooncake came up with a set of topics, of which had very familiar covers.
It was the question bank from two years ago.
Although there weren’t many questions, each was detailed and tailored towards particular subjects that students were going to be tested on.
The topics that competitors had written before were all specially compiled for him by the teachers he invited.
Sheng Renxing said nothing, he opened his own book.
Completing these questions was especially time-consuming, and some even took an hour just to complete.
Everyone had their own small habits when thinking.
Sheng Renxing himself liked to twirl his pen, and upon focusing, he would notice all kinds of external movements despite his immersion in the topic at hand.
Including leg shaking.
Sheng Renxing vibrated up and down alongside the eraser crumbs on his desk, like a small earthquake was occurring.
He raised his head, and knocked on the table.
Mooncake frowned and glanced up blankly.
Sheng Renxing,”Don’t move so much.”
After a while, the eraser shavings began to vibrate again.
Sheng Renxing lifted his head again, knocked his pen on the table and stared at the mooncake blankly.
Wuren momentarily paused to give him a glance.
After a while, the eraser crumbs began to dance again.
The other took a deep breath and scanned his eyes around the desk to mentally determine if the water bottle or the pencil case would cause less damage.
As he was thinking, the phone shook.
18: [?]
“?” Sheng Renxing turned on his phone.
Above this question mark was a message Xing Ye sent in the afternoon.
To which Sheng Renxing didn’t reply.
Putting down the pen, he leaned back on the chair and held his phone with one hand to scroll through their conversations during the past two weeks.
Upon reaching a large lapse in time between each message, Sheng Renxing stared at the screen and breathed out slowly.
X: [Was solving math problems, didn’t notice]
18: [Library?]
X: [?]
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Sheng Renxing glanced around the room subconsciously, but the only one in his line of sight was the mooncake, who frowned in confusion. A little surprised by his own actions, he immediately retracted his gaze.
Ktfgf kjrc’a jcsbcf firf tfgf.
Vtfcu Efczlcu’r qtbcf nlygjafv jujlc.
18: [Image]
Pa kjr j qlmaegf bo tlw vblcu tbwfkbgx lc atf ilygjgs.
18: [Posted on the school forum, was secretly photographed.]
X: [Too handsome, can’t help it]
Vtfcu Efczlcu ogbkcfv.
18: [Are you staying until it closes?]
X: [I’m not sure, depends on when I finish]
18: [Tsk]
Qtja jgf sbe arx-lcu ja?!!
Ccbatfg wfrrjuf rbbc mjwf bnfg.
18: [/hug]
“Krx,” Vtfcu Efczlcu atgfk tlr qtbcf bc atf ajyif jcv rajgfv ja la. Ciatbeut atf fwbalmbc’r alaif kjr j teu, la ibbxfv wbgf ilxf j ilaaif ugffc wjc wjxlcu j yfmxbclcu wbalbc. Lf ofia atja atf wfrrjuf Wlcu Tf jmaejiis kjcafv ab mbcnfs kjr “pljsbe.”
After a bit, Sheng Renxing turned off his phone without replying.
The next day, he was taken in to have a chat with the director.
“He said that I’m distracting him? ” Sheng Renxing stood at the desk with his hands in his pockets, face betraying his surprise.
Director Li smiled, “It’s only a few hours. Regarding your urge to have fun, just bear with it for a while.”
“…” Sheng Renxing raised his eyebrow upon hearing that they now needed to hand in their phones during their study sessions, “Well, I’ll give you my phone if he cuts off his legs.”
“…” Director Li frowned.
In the end, Sheng Renxing muted his phone, and the school separated the tables for them.
When he left the office, he ran straight into Xing Ye.
Both of them were stunned.
“Why are you here?” Sheng Renxing asked first.
The other looked a little thinner, but thinking about how idiotic he was to sprout this sort of nonsense after just a few days, he quickly dismissed it.
They moved to the side of the corridor, “Got called here for skipping classes.”
Sheng Renxing laughed, “How many lessons have you missed?”
Xing Ye shook his head, “I can’t remember.”
“Why are you here?”
Sheng Renxing curled his lips: “I was tattled on by a stupid man.” This is the first time he was accused of this kind of complaint, and the novelty left him speechless, “Because I was playing with my phone last night and diverted his attention away from the problem at hand.”
Xing Ye’s brows furrowed into a frown, “The one in that picture?”
“Yeah?”
“Then how’s your phone faring?”
Sheng Renxing shrugged: “They originally said that they would take it.”
Xing Ye nodded.
The two were left speechless for a while.
After all, it had been a week since they last got to chat like this.
The atmosphere made Sheng Renxing feel a little more relaxed, “I’ll head back first.”
At the same time, Xing Ye asked: “Are you free after school?”
“Huh?” The other interjected, an agreement at the edge of his lips.
While scrambling for an excuse, he heard Xing Ye say, “I’ll have to take up a bit of your time to give you the wobble toy from last time.”
“You’ve already fixed it? Also don’t call it that; it’s no longer worthy.”
Xing Ye nodded.
Sheng Renxing was pleasantly surprised, “Okay! I’ll see you tonight. Let’s eat together if it’s convenient?”
Xing Ye smiled, “I’ll come find you.”
After school, Sheng Renxing sat at his desk writing problems while waiting for the other.
When he finished, most of the people on duty had left, and the previous cacophony had given way to peace and quiet.
He shook his wrist, set the pen down, and rubbed his neck. When he looked up, he was startled by Xing Ye, who was now sitting next to him, “When did you come?”
Sheng Renxing stared, “Also, why didn’t you call me?”
Xing Ye tilted his head to look at him, “I’ve been here for an hour. Wanted to give you a fright.”
“I was so scared I jumped out of my seat,” Sheng Renxing deadpanned while turning on the phone, and found that it hadn’t even been an hour since school ended.
He curled his mouth and gestured towards Xing Ye with the display open.
The other smiled silently while watching him.
Sheng Renxing blinked, feeling a little off-kilter at how close they were—to the point where he could count Xing Ye’s eyelashes one by one.
Retreating to the wall, he wondered why the two desks didn’t feel so small when it was the captain sitting there instead.
Sheng Renxing looked away and put the exercise book into his school bag: “You meant to give me the wobble toy?”
Xing Ye nodded and turned around to take it out of his bag.
The other stuffed the captain’s things back into his drawer and stared at him curiously, a joke at the tip of his tongue, “That was so quick I’m afraid you scammed me out of ten thousand dollars…”
Before he finished, Xing Ye placed the decoration onto the table.
Sheng Renxing stopped talking.
Knowing that it was by Xing Ye’s hand, he felt that this thing was twice as beautiful as when he first saw it.
Xing Ye reattached the metallic parts on where it had fallen apart, and replaced the broken glass tubes with iron wire.
Layers of willowy iron cording weaved back and forth in the original model, and although it was slightly messy, it only added to the trinkets charm.
Between the wires, there were also small round stones to replace the shattered beads.
Xing Ye gently prodded it with his hand, and as the rods moved, the stones passed through the various iron wires. As if he had calculated the distance before—which he probably did—none of the stones bumped into each other.
When they swung from side to side, it exposed a gem in the middle that stabilized all the movable branches of wiring.
It was blue and grey all over, and mixed with patterns that looked like moire.
Like the earth.
Sheng Renxing stared speechlessly at it for a long time.
“You did that? It’s so damn good!”
Like an art piece that belonged in a museum.
Xing Ye only raised the corner of his lips, and his expression remained the same, as if he thought the other was just being polite.
“It’s really beautiful! How did you do it?”
“Can I touch it?”
The other nodded, “Don’t use too much strength.”
Sheng Renxing approached carefully and gently touched the wire, and the mesmerising scene started all over again.
“You really did so well,” he memorized a detailed description of each wire, and thought about just how much effort Xing Ye spent on it.
In truth, his uncle probably wouldn’t ask him for the money, but even if he did, it wasn’t like Sheng Renxing didn’t have any to spare, although it wasn’t him who broke the decoration.
Xing Ye didn’t answer.
“Huh?” He stared at the stone in a daze, “This…?”
“I couldn’t find the store that sold the original beads.” Xing Ye also reached out and touched it as it spun steadily, “So when I was mountain climbing, I picked up these rocks and thought the pattern looked pretty.”
This finger was close to Sheng Renxing, and he spied the cut on it.
“It’s only that it’s not very valuable,” Xing Ye continued.
Sheng Renxing’s heart constricted and turned to him.
The other lowered his eyes and frowned slightly, “Moreover, my other tools were still at my house.”
Sheng Renxing took a hard breath and shook his head, “What are you talking about, it’s already so good!”
He stared at the other person’s eyes, “With your skills, if my uncle wants to take it back, he’d have to give me one hundred thousand.”
Xing Ye finally broke out into a smile.
“I’ll pay him so that I get to keep it.” Sheng Renxing raised his hand and tapped the stone, “Mine.”
Xing Ye didn’t speak in lieu of patting the other’s hair.
Sheng Renxing bit the inside of his cheek and dialed the iron rod with his fingers: “Have you been working on it all this time?”
“Yeah.” Xing Ye leaned back in his chair and slouched relaxedly.
“Why didn’t you call me to help you out?” The other frowned, but then thought of his recent behavior.
“Haven’t you been busy lately?”
Sheng Renxing was taken aback for a moment and then turned to Xing Ye, feeling that he had already noticed his deliberate avoidance.
Alas, this idiot has been revealed.
Thinking of what he had done during this time, he felt that he was a fool all over again.
Xing Ye looked back at him dodgingly, his expression slightly dull, “Do you like it?”
Sheng Renxing nodded, “I like it very much!”
The other smiled; although only the corner of his mouth was slightly pulling it, the mirth was reflected in his eyes, “I’ll make one for you later.”
Sheng Renxing was rendered speechless once again. His smile revealed a row of teeth as he straightened up to lean against the wall behind him.. Xing Ye’s hand fell from his hair to his neck.
“Then I want ear studs,” he touched his ears, “and this kind of stone, I’ll pick it up with you.”
Hearing this, Xing Ye’s moved to touch his current serpentine earrings, his fingertips making contact with the lobes of his ears.
Sheng Renxing’s ears were sensitive, and he turned his head to hide. Xing Ye followed him with his fingers as if he still wanted to take off his ear studs.
The other didn’t move: “Ah, be careful,” and in the midst of their close contact, he couldn’t help but impulsively add, “I can go climbing, I haven’t been to Jingting Mountain, so it’ll be nice to check it out.”
Xing Ye took off an earring with one hand, and seeing that Sheng Renxing still hadn’t moved, his right hand also stretched out, “Aren’t you busy?”
Sheng Renxing tilted his head to better facilitate his movements, and replied with a little frustration, “I was quite busy a while ago, but it’s gotten better now.”
“I don’t want to pressure you, I can just go by myself.” Xing Ye didn’t use ear studs, and so his movements were a bit slow.
Sheng Renxing realized that the other was deliberately teasing him, and “tsk-ed”, skirting around an explanation of his previous behavior, “That’s enough, I won’t do it again in the future.”
After he finished speaking, he felt that this promise sounded really awkward, but before he could fortify his argument, Xing Ye’s voice drifted into his ear, “I thought you lied to me that night.”
Turning his head too abruptly, he accidentally tugged on his ears and hissed in pain, all the while thinking about what lie the other had thought he told.
Xing Ye met his gaze: “You mind.”
“Fuck.” Sheng Renxing frowned, “I don’t mind! I just…”
He internally muttered, “I’m just worried that I like you, so I want to stay away from you to calm down?”
Of course, those words never made it out of his mouth. Death would be a greater mercy.
He didn’t say a word, and neither did Xing Ye.
Sheng Renxing almost wanted to heave a large sigh, “It has nothing to do with you, I’m just awkward.” He twisted his eyebrows, racked his brains, and finally gave a half-truth, “I’m gay, and being gay is awkward.”
Xing Ye was stunned, and then laughed. The earrings fell in his palm. He closed his hand and rubbed his head with the other hand: “You are my friend.” Regardless of whether you’re gay or not, it doesn’t matter.
Sheng Renxing curled up a corner of his lips but wasn’t comforted.
However, he thought that the other’s statement at least made sense, given that Xing Ye had zero romantic interest in him.
He patted Xing Ye’s hand perfunctorily, “I’m your father.”
Xing Ye was still laughing.
“Are you that happy to be adopted by another dad?”
Xing Ye nodded, “Mn.”
Sheng Renxing stared at him before suddenly leaning in. Bracing a hand on the back of Xing Ye’s chair, he looked as if he was about to go in for a kiss.
The other’s instinctive reaction was to shift back, but seeing Sheng Renxing’s “I know you mind” expression, he didn’t move and let him continue.
They stayed there for a long while.
The two were face-to-face, and even as their noses nearly bumped into each other, Xing Ye still had no reaction.
Sheng Renxing thought for a bit before raising a hand and trailing it from the other’s chest to waist.
He straightened up and shrugged his shoulders, holding back a smile, “You do mind.”
Xing Ye mirrored his movements with a shrug and a raised hand slowly making its way towards Sheng Renxing’s chest, “I don’t mind.”
The other was so stunned that his reaction only came a second later.
His conditioned reflex helped him leap onto the chair with ease, leaning on the back wall with his arms around his knees. Sheng Renxing stared at Xing Ye with red ears, “I didn’t know that you could behave like such a hooligan!”
<3
I’m absolutely love all the headpats Xing Ye gives Sheng Renxing, and all the other small touches of affection they give to each other. Even if they aren’t together, it sort of gives the illusion that they know they like each other.
ugh I love the two of them so much <3 thank you for the chapter!
Thank you so much for the chapter!
I really liked how they resolved the issue, before it turned into a huge, dramatic misunderstanding. Also, couldn’t help but laugh when Renxing called Xing Ye a hooligan~ 😂😂
On another subject, this chapter is numbered 32, the same as the last one… 😅
THE CHEMISTRY DUDE THE FREAKIN CHEMISTRY IS OFF THE CHARTS AAAAHHHHHHH
When will this two be together..😭
Thanks for the chapter!
thanks for the chapter <3
They are so precious 😭😭😭 i love how sheng renxing acknowledges his feelings, it’s so refreshingly frank
Man can they just get together already? And Yeye don’t bullshit, you’re obviously gay and like him too. Why can’t you just admit it?
Ty for the chapter!!💜💜💜
I’m living for the communication and affectionate touches but pls stop playing gay chicken with each other 😭 commit to the bit you two